Writing: Articles & Essays

TBA Notebook: 33 Fainting Spells' 'Our Little Sunbeam'

The Oregonian, September 19, 2004

What happens when you take a Chekhov play, update it to the 1970s, and perform it against the backdrop of images and words of US space program astronauts? "Our Little Sunbeam" is the bizarre and poignant result of this fusion.

Gaelen Hanson and Dayna Hanson (no relation) of Seattle's 33 Fainting Spells are the co-creators of this production fresh from its New York premiere.

The story of "Ivanov," a little known Anton Chekhov tragedy, revolves around the suicidal Ivanov (played with hilarity by Linas Phillips), his relationship to his dying wife Anna (played by Gaelen), and his guilt over an affair with young Sasha (Dayna).

Intercut with this angst-ridden story are kinetic dance numbers, a hilarious scene of Ivanov and Anna in counseling, a spoof of a post-show talk with the artists, and the musings of a taxidermic owl that speaks in an Irish brogue.

Just when you think the whole show is a parody, the astronauts' words and Ivanov's pondering start to resonate. When an astronaut describes feeling like an alien "not subject to earth's gravity, divorced from human existence," and his subsequent break with reality, this could be Ivanov speaking.

When an astronaut exclaims: "I'm not sure everyone couldn't become a poet if they stood on the moon," then we know: Ivanov is that poet wrestling with life's most existential questions on a moonscape of his own creation.

The most inspiring aspect of the show is that, against all odds, the performers, using a light and confident touch, ring truth out of the juxtaposition of outer space and inner torment.